Rivkin

Probably shinto, i.e. 17th century, hard to say something more specific I guess.

By shape its circa 1650-1660, or maybe 1690-1720, plus minus. Looks reasonably legit. Polish is unlikely to be profitable.

There is some discrepancy on when Tegai had began, but generally the range is between 1280 and 1310-1320. If its Tegai-related its no earlier than that. It can be that its Senjuin that looks like Tegai... Is it mentioned in papers as Senjuin? Still generally the earliest Senjuin goes by ko Senjuin. Whether this is Heian or later is debatable, it can still be early Kamakura even with ko. The worst case scenario: as of now there is no identification in papers or sayagaki of school which is certain to be Kamakura, no mentioning of the period explicitly, no reference to Kamakura smith. There is reference to Tegai which is generally a late school. How the blade looks like: Sugata of this type is a difficult thing to say the least. Koshizori with fumbari by itself can be early, late Kamakura, can be 1400s. The kissaki is small compared to the blade, but that's not definitive for many reasons. The blade appears to be a bit too wide for the period, but again its really hard to be definitive without the exact measurements. What is certain is that its short at 2 shaku plus a bit, with a short nakago. This not at all common for early examples especially Yamato which did not do some fancy Yamashiro kodachi that often. Nakago is not heian by profile. There are just no Heian (i.e. Munechika and the likes) features here - how shinogi behaves, overall profile. Its very interesting whether its end is original or was altered. The work itself is a rough Yamato style. Usually early Senjuin is a bit more interesting, but maybe its just tired etc. etc. So its hard to be definitive but I am at loss whether any papers/sayagaki actually hint towards such early origin (I don't see it) or whether there is any particular feature here that is 100% early Kamakura. If there would be jifu utsuri or something like that it would have made to sayagaki.

It is interesting if the papers mention early Kamakura as the description suggests about 1300-1330... or maybe as late as 1500. Also an interesting nakago end for something ubu.

without looking into books: shape does suggest Kambun shinto. Signature titles are typical for Edo period It seems to have certain Yamato hue to it, so Owari connection (even though the title does not really attest to it) is possible, as very many Edo smith came from other provinces and suguha is not too common there. It can be an unlisted smith.

I don't know the exact reason why whatever is the case the most likely advice someone posting a sword to receive is: 1. Show it to someone "who really knows". 2. Show it to a polisher. 3. Have it polished! Its just the way it always goes...

unfortunately studying the signature is best with the photo taken strictly from above, full frame filled, otherwise distortions are making everything appear gimei. So It does appear gimei but maybe only at this angle.

No one will criticize a WWI collector buying 120$ typical German saber or someone buying the most mass made 100$ WWII medal. Seen plenty of such pieces in veteran's homes with stories worth their weight in blood. 500$ wakizashi and suddenly its a crime. Cheap swords have a place to fill. Beginners best start with something affordable since given their level of knowledge and enthusiasm they are likely to loose this investment money anyway. Every weapon deserves respect. I hope one day there will be a price appropriate polishing solution as well. So far my list of blades damaged beyond the pale easy has nothing to do with the acid and everything with proud people overthinking their options. A few years back I saw Akihiro or Hiromitsu's waki, don't remember was it one or the other, in "true sashikomi".... One of the most ghastly nihonto pieces I've seen. Polish ordered by a westerner (it always is) who heard too many stories about acid and "superficial beauty" of hadori. Done by a known polisher who does not understand the method ... Well, since there is no standard on "true sashikomi" everyone basically wings it. I am yet to see any two polishers doing it in a mutually consistent way. In this case togishi probably did not have a lot of practice with Hiromitsu's school. Result: Were it submitted after the polish rather than before, it would not have papered for sure. For the past decade I see "true sashikomi" striking the Soshu turf every year. 100% bad outcomes. Its VERY seldom the right polish for the school even when people understand what they are doing. On the other hand, not as bad, but more recurrent - tons of Ichimonji where hadori is so high you can't see utsuri anymore besides couple of spots sticking from underneath. Essentially you just can't appreciate the blade. There is very little perception in the community what the correct polish should look like, what are the options and how the blade can change depending on which school polishes it. And if you call out the names, the loyalty machine will go into overdrive to protect the mistakes people make. Instead every beginner collector is now panicking over "acid".

Unfortunately every horror story with a good blade that I know of involved either a "top", highly recommended western polisher or a mid rank Japanese polisher who somehow got this job pushed on him, sometimes accompanied by a rather problematic request by a customer ("true sashikomi" tends to be featured in 50% of those cases). Because no one wants to make enemies in the community no one talks about it. There are plenty of beer buddies ready to chime in "I know John for thirty years and he is a fantastic person and an amazing polisher". Sorry folks, then I see a non-traditional polish done on a low tier blade and there is a widespread desire to shame the people involved with an argument that it might have been a good blade. Yes, a non-traditional polisher should be absolutely strict in working with showato and other things which are non-consequential. There should be a solution to polish 500-1000$ blades. In Japan dealers do it themselves or have someone else with comparable skill do it. Frankly speaking I don't like the results, though yes, they do look more "traditional" compared to how americans do it. Ten feet away the blade appears in a normal, fresh polish. The issue is when you move close you still can't really see anything, sometimes appraising it is impossible. I don't this being an issue with the kind of work presented here. Maybe one of the days american "modernists" will mess up a good sword, but so far I've seen this happening only with a very-very few representatives (actually one) of this club who are positioning themselves as professionals with proper education. They are the problem indeed. And they are the part of a greater nihonto issue no one wants to talk about - arrogance. Traditional Japanese craftsman in makie, embroidery, paper or other field is someone who works hard and enjoys little public recognition, driven by the desire to continue the craft and possibly their family tradition. With Western craftsmen you often run into situation where a huge part of the motivation is being a sensei, someone who is addressed with respect and who gets to tell people what to do with their blades (kind of what I do on this forum?). Unfortunately with people of lower classes (let's put some bigotry in) this can be an important consideration. Often comes with a full package: rabid search for titles, awards, name dropping of famous people. Allah knows how many friends and "official successors" to Tanobe san dwell in a little country called the United States of America. More to the point - people moved by such motivation often do crazy .... to blades just to show "they know better", "the original polish was improper", or even simply because they are lazy and decided to suddenly skip a few steps in the polishing process. And that's the kind of stuff I've seen frankly way too often in the West.

Can be a bit earlier than I originally thought but does not make a lot of difference. Having nothing against untraditional polishes of this type, except they are and do look a bit cheap. In Japan you can get go man yen polish with hadori so thick there is nothing to see, ju man en polish where it can work out well on some blades but its still done in dealer's own shop etc.. Now in the US there are couple of people doing rough and tough polish - as long as they stick to lower blades, iai showato especially, don't want to cause them any trouble. In principle no element here is subdued or distorted so the polish still allows for reasonable assesment.

The polish looks untraditional, a lesser version of what Dave Hoffine does. Sugata-wise it has 1650 feel, beefy, wide, straight but not Kambun yet. Basically sugu boshi also hints towards shinto. Steel has shinto feel. Hamon has a bit of late Muromachi Mino style look, but this style was used by very many. Can be Etchu/Kashu/Echizen Seki etc.etc. Still I believe the work is from 1650s. Regarding the smith's origin, I am not sure but its not going to be the first or second tier name, chu-jo saku or chu-saku.

1. It would be better to just include the link to aoi art (its their images) which would have the original Japanese price its sold for. 2. Kozori can be junk and can be great, though in the latter case its likely attributed to Masamitsu or some other personal name. The blade has to be judged individually and Aoi Art's technique does not work great with utsuri etc. except for the images taken at an angle - the ones you don't provide. With a standard camera on top, light on a side setup nioi choji comes out as a shadow and utsuri is usually not seen at all.

Seen and went through a few hitatsura yari...

Greatly shortened, straight, wide with little to no taper and o-kissaki is either Nambokucho, Tensho or shinshinto. Often kasane helps to resolve whichever it is. Its unlikely to be Yamashiro, so suguha can be interpreted as Yamato (Tegai?) though its a stretch guess. I am a bit concerned that the steel here appears to be very clean and uniform which tends to be associated with later work so I would not disregard the possibility of shinshinto. One of the cases where seeing it in hand would help, maybe one shot where the details of work on the blade are visible (if there is such fragment of the blade) would also help.

What you have is Osaka wakizashi (Osaka yakidashi attests to it) from about 1660 of rather good quality with a signature that begs many questions. I am not at all well versed with shinto ones, but I would suspect the work of upper tier but relatively unknown Osaka smiths was forcibly rebranded...

I can offer a bit of downvote: during early Showa Emperor's visits and gifts were quite common, plus properties of some members of the family was sold off after the war. Having an item with such provenance in Japan is not too uncommon. Very often these are small silver trinkets, but on occasion one can get a full china set or something else. The quality is very good though.

I don't know what are the actual costs but about 1,000$ tends to be typical amount for the whole operation. Unfortunately insurance will not help you as the blade's value at this point is unknown. Yes, there is a chance it will disappear, though some of those who can take it to NBTHK (Bob Benson?) are US based so the risk will be with American USPS. Which is horrible vis-a-vis intentional packages received but not so much (yet) internally. More likely risk - say it fails, then erasing the signature (500$) and you don't know how well they'll do the repatination (it does affect the judgement) and then the worst you get is some generic Bizen judgement to 1520. At this point you are likely 1.5 years and 2000 invested in a blade that you can then sell for 1500-2500. The best case scenario is obviously very attractive, but simply because such blades are very rare its usually not too likely... but I think this blade has a fighting chance. There are sort of in between scenarios where the issue of new polish will come in etc..

Unfortunately this needs to be studied in hand. It is a good blade. With 95% probability its Bizen and koto. With the shape like this one it can be quite a few things. The best case scenario you have Fukuoka Ichimoji (btw the signature can still be either fake or real). The worst case scenario you have Muromachi blade from around 1500 made in old style with a fake signature. Good news is that the condition is sufficient for it to paper. Sending it to Japan to NBTHK is a valid option at this point. If it fails, arrange for the mei to be erased and resubmit. I am 80% convinced the nakago has been tampered with in the past 100 years, which makes me seriously doubt the signature. But sometimes the tampering is just an awkward result of someone trying to improve on things without knowing how to handle swords, i.e. everything is still original.

Really bad condition, nakago probably cleanup or blasted at one point, really weird sugata especially if its shoshin. I would not rate it as highly collectable.

It does appear Bizen-like, has utsuri, definitely koto. It has potential. Can't comment on signature's validity, but what is seen is decent. If you are selling, would be interested in buying. Stylewise its also does not have the Muromachi vibe, there is a chance its older.

Very likely Kambun shinto piece, maaaaybe Kaga school. Usually not profitable to restore without a signature.

Looks like decent shinshinto blades with utsuri enhanced or created by acid, sayagaki raise questions, though I am unfortunately not very knowledgeable on sayagaki overall.

Need closeup of activities, boshi etc. As of now does not look like something too recent, can be shinto, can be a bit older, but its a wild guess just based on patina's appearance.

In the first photo kissaki proportions are badly distorted, and overall it is very important to picture boshi in detail. Assuming its sugu, this most likely would be shinto. The polish is not top notch but it does underline the hamon well so its quite useful. Mino-ish style most likely. There is indeed not much to see in these photographs, but it appears as genuine though pretty average period blade.

Hamon is quite well seen, while jigane is absolutely bland everywhere, quite possibly the polisher did not do well with it and killed whatever was there. A bit tired as well. Otherwise its a typical issue that circa 1395 blade costs half of the one from 1385. It is what it is. Personally there is some decay of quality from 1350 to 1380, but 1440 is often as good or better than 1380.